 |  |
Jim Goldstein has produced a survey to study the effectiveness of social media on photography businesses. If you have time I recommend giving some feedback.
2009 Photographer Social Media Survey
If you have any input, please comment here as well, I am interested to hearing how well the social media world is going for you.
Today, I have a special guest post from my wife! Since she has not immersed herself into the photography world from a technical aspect, it is always refreshing to have her fresh perspectives on what I am doing and additionally, her support has been invaluable. So, here is her take on today’s Photo Friday image.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Derrald’s. I like the detail of the bee, from the sharpness of his wings, to the individual fine hairs of his fuzzy body. I think there is an interesting juxtaposition of the sharply-defined bee and the slightly out of focus thistle. It seems the colors in this picture are very vibrant as well. Normally I think of bees as miniature enemy pilots out to sting me, but viewing this picture, somehow I do not feel threatened at all. - Holly Thomas
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
Near Cedar Rapids, Nebraska
This photograph can be viewed on my website at: Larger Than Life - Bee and Thistle
Often, travel photographers tend to go to different locations to shoot. The tendency is to grab a few shots of the grand scenics, the locations that are familiar to the masses and then move on. From a commercial perspective, these are probably the shots that sell the most as they are the locations that people remember when visiting a popular location. The saying “familiarity breeds contempt” comes to mind to describe these individuals. There are some photographers, however, that like to explore an area and find images that don’t fall into the “shoot and go” mentality. It is those artists that gain a greater appreciation for a place the longer they visit.
My wife and I have visited the Black Hills and Badlands area in South Dakota three times together. Before that we both traveled there multiple times as children. Indeed, it is a popular destination for people that live in Nebraska as the Badlands is the closest national park. We both have fond memories of this area so it was no surprise that we decided to take our 2 year old on this trip. Each time I return I gain a greater appreciation for the landscape, the wildlife, and the nature of the area and I find myself shooting areas that are not the “popular” locations. Today’s shot, while close to an overlook, is not a popular spot and I found myself hiking a little ways for a new perspective. The weather was very cooperative and gave me some god beams shining down on the ridges in the distance. I saw only one other soul while shooting, and he was photographing a deer (I think). It was a peaceful, serene morning in a place of which I was familiar and appreciate.
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 29mm, f/11, 1/20 sec., Singh-Ray 3-Stop Hard Grad
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
This photograph can be viewed on my at: Welcome to Wonderland - Badlands National Park, South Dakota
I have recently returned from an adventure west and north to South Dakota and western Nebraska. My very pregnant wife, 2 year old, and I had some fun, saw some stuff, and I was able to do some work as well! Buffalo, pronghorns, big horn sheep, mountain goats were some of the critters we managed to see. In addition, we had a look at some killer prairie dogs - literally. Seems that some of these little guys have the plague. Didn’t realize that one until we saw the signs - “Caution, Prairie Dogs Have Plague! Keep People and Pets in the Vehicle.”
As far as landscapes, we got around to traveling through Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, the Black Hills, Chadron State Park, and Toadstool Geologic Park. Additionally, we happened to stumble upon the only Uranium mine in Nebraska. Once again, didn’t realize that until we saw the radioactive warning signs. Of course, my wife thought I was trying to kill us, or at least make us all very sick. It’s been a few days now and I can report that so far we have no symptoms and we do not glow in the dark.
I tried some new techniques during the trip and over the next couple of weeks I will be sorting photographs and processing and I may upload an image or two from the trip.
Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/640 sec.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
For the last in the 5 part series, I will demonstrate a variation of the “Orton” technique that I occasionally use. The Orton technique was popularized a few years ago and has gained momentum. Many ethereal modifications to photographs have been using different techniques centered around one goal - giving an image a slight blurry, other-wordly look.
For this image, I loaded the RAW file into Adobe Photoshop and tweaked the temperature, contrast, etc. until I had the image processed to my liking.
I then copied the background layer by right-clicking and selecting “Duplicate” and naming the layer “Blurring Layer”. This new layer will be selected. I then chose “Gaussian Blur” under the “Blur” options and picked a radius of “30″.
Going back to my layers menu, I changed the opacity of this layer until I had the effect for which I was going, on this image it happened to be 51%. For a final touch, I created a curves adjustment to add a little more contrast to the photograph, being liberal with the curve.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 109mm, f/8, 1/500 second
Continuing in the steps of yesterday’s image, I wanted to convert a close-up of the headlight on the tractor to monochrome, but I wanted it to have a bit of a sepia, faded feeling like photographs from another era. Just as before, I loaded the RAW file using Adobe RAW and set my temperature, contrast and other settings close to how I would want the image if I was going to publish it in color. Once again, I used the grayscale option to help me to visualize how the image would like in black and white to help perfect my options.
The Large Conversion
Once I have everything set, I then activate the Nik Silver Efex filter and begin scrolling through my options on the left. About 2/3rds down the page, I find a couple of options for sepia toned images. I think that the Dark Sepia version works the best so I choose that one. It turns out a bit dark, so I use the brightness slider to increase it just a tad. I also up the contrast and structure a little bit from the defaults. While some of the pipes are falling into the darkness a bit, I don’t mind that, but I want to show a bit of detail so I did move the shadows slider up. The highlights slider I left alone.
Adding That Little Extra
Since the tractor consists mainly of reds and white, I choose a green filter which helps lighten the reds and create more a sepia tone across the whites. I didn’t like the effect full on, so I moved the intensity to 64%. Because of the quality of the lenses in the past, many of the old photos have a bit of a vignetting to them. My goal with this is to not make it too noticeable, but give the viewer a bit of a lead in into the photo. I moved the vignetting down to -7 which darkens the corners slightly, but not too noticeably.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/10, 1/400 second